A year after the horrific massacre in El Fasher, the people of Darfur still confront the devastating current state of the city and the continued atrocities inflicted on civilians. We stand in remembrance of the lives lost during the siege and recognize the survivors who continue to endure systemic abuses and persecution in El Fasher and beyond, specifically as El Geneina still waits for justice and Blue Nile faces ongoing threats of mass atrocity.
Today, in the city used to house nearly 2 million people only fewer than 70,000 civilians remain in El Fasher. Those who remain are subjected to constant surveillance and coercive control by the RSF, and reports indicate that some remaining civilians have been forced into unpaid labor – such as cooking for fighters or collecting bodies. We express concern over those living under conditions of gross human rights abuses, collapse of infrastructure, and restricted humanitarian access.
Furthermore, tens of thousands still remain unaccounted for, while their families still await answers. During and after the takeover of El Fasher, those who were captured, abducted, or went missing remain missing to this day, with many having been held for ransom.
Those who were able to flee El Fasher face continued duress. Over half a million displaced people are crowded into nearby areas like Tawila and Dar Es Salam. These cities – initially meant to hold between 20,000 and 40,000 individuals – are incredibly overcrowded and face devastating shortages of food, clean water, shelter, and medical care.
Darfur Women Action Group (DWAG) is gravely concerned about the inaction of the international community in the face of the deadliest atrocities and its aftermath, include displacements, abductions, imprisonments, and extrajudicial killings perpetrated by the RSF. Moreover, we are gravely alarmed at the escalating siege conditions in El-Obeid, which risks becoming the next El Fasher, and the international community’s repeated failure to act. We refuse to stay silent about serious international crimes- genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity continue unabated with total impunity, and we demand those responses to be held accountable. The failure to translate repeated condemnations into effective civilian protection and accountability has left survivors without redress and created ample conditions for further atrocities to persist.
When the full scale massacre of El Fasher began in October 2025, the RSF deliberately imposed conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of communities, as reported by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan. We are horrified by the “hallmarks of genocide” found by the Fact-Finding Mission. In El Fasher, civilians faced, and continue to endure, horrific conditions deliberately imposed by the RSF, including sexual slavery, rape, and other forms of sexual violence, unlawful detainments of civilians and hostages, recruitment of children, deliberate targeting of disabled individuals, mistreatment of disabled and elderly individuals, and ethnic targeting and discrimination against non-Arabs.
The RSF deliberately employs starvation as a weapon of war, as it doesn’t have a noise, flame, or smoke, but causes irreparable destruction. The RSF continuously destroys essential infrastructure and loots vehicles, deliberately preventing food and medical supplies from entering the city. This is a crime against humanity as constituted under international law, and we demand the international community to prosecute it as such.
One year later, those remaining in El Fasher face deplorable and horrific conditions. We must act to bring justice for the people of El Fasher and greater Sudan. DWAG demands accountability from the perpetrators enacting grave crimes against humanity. We reaffirm our commitment to atrocity prevention and early warning, early action for cities at heightened risk for atrocity, such as El Obeid.
At Darfur Women Action Group, we call on the international community to act now:
- Fully resource and support the UN Fact-Finding Mission to document atrocities, secure evidence, and prosecute crimes of genocide, sexual violence, ethnic targeting, and mass starvation as weapons of war.
- Open safe humanitarian corridors with guaranteed and unobstructed access for food, medical aid, fuel, and emergency lifesaving aid agencies, including cross-border corridors through Chad and other routes, as well as holding the RSF and those who obstruct, attack, or blockade aid access accountable.
- Deploy international protection forces under Chapter VII mandates to safeguard civilians, displacement camps, hospitals, and humanitarian aid workers across Sudan, especially for the sake of women and children who are most vulnerable to humanitarian abuses and sexual violence.
- Enforce an immediate and sustained ceasefire with civilian protection guarantees, including an immediate halt to all RSF aerial bombardment, drone strikes, and siege tactics, and mandate the withdrawal of RSF forces from civilian zones in El Fasher, El-Obeid, El Geneina, and throughout Darfur and Kordofan.
- Expand the arms embargo to all of Sudan by cutting the weapons pipeline feeding genocide, including enforcement against all international, regional suppliers and intermediaries known to be arming the RSF.
- Demand RSF withdraw from Elfasher to create an enabling environment for lifesaving aid and enable survivors to restore their dignity
- Listen to and integrate the voices of survivors, women, and affected communities in all decision-making related to resolving this crisis and preventing future atrocities.
With Gratitude,
Niemat Ahmadi
President, Darfur Women Action Group